The VideoLAN Forums

Hi, I'm trying to extract the audio stream from a YouTube video using VLC 2.2.6 Umbrella. Media > Convert doesn't work at all, no output. To eliminate any network issues I copied the Location from Tools > Codec Information... into my browser and saved the file locally as vid.webm. The Codec info for the network stream and local file agree Stream 1 is a Vorbis Audio (vorb) Stereo 44.1 kHz 128 kb/s audio stream, so all I need to do is simply save the existing audio stream. But I have no luck, convert always produces a zero-length file.

1. Media > Convert/Save...
2. Add local file vid.webm
3. Click [Convert/Save]
4. (Convert is checked), turn off Display the output and Deinterlace, choose Profile Audio - Vorbis (OGG) and click its Tools icon.
5. In Profile edition leave encapsulation as Ogg/Ogm, leave Video codec unchecked, in Audio codec check "Keep original audio track".
6. set Destination file as vid_local.ogg
7. click [Start]

Result: A zero-length vid_local.ogg is created. Nothing happens in the UI, the VLC media player window doesn't change. If I click the [>] play button nothing happens.

I tried Tools > Preference > Show settings All > Logging and set a log file with Log format Text and Verbosity 2, and no log file is created.

If I don't choose "Keep original audio track", same result. If I try a different profile like Audio - MP3, same result.

(Is there a list of known bugs in VLC 2.2?)

can you try transcoding to vorbis, even if that's useless ?

Has anyone gotten this to work?
I've tried this with an audio CD and it will absolutely not convert anything- audio/video/mp3/mp4/raw.
It will create an empty file (sometimes) and that's it. Windows Media Player can rip it fine. I can convert another file fine, but no CD.

read second point in my signature

I extract podcasts from YouTube all the time with 2.2.6 Umbrella. This is how I do it.

Using Chrome to get the clip's address, but others certainly work.

Browser: Right click the clip's icon and copy the address
VLC: Toggle to [Playlist] mode (one of the buttons at the bottom, between equalizer and repeat.)
Open your media:
CTRL+N > paste in copied YT URL > click [PLAY] playback starts
As soon as the clip starts to play, [pause] it
Click back into [playlist] view again
Right click the clip you just started
Choose "Save..." in the context menu (opens the Convert dialog)
(Also: In the right-click context the "Information..." dialog choice is handy because it displays the title to copy/paste)
In the Convert dialog: Choose a profile
(I have used OGG, and all the containers, but I like MP3 most, I find with MP3 I can navigate the clip better - jump forward, speed up)
Click [Browse]
Save File... dialog box opens to the familiar save location dialog
(I have an open issue with 'save location,' it reverts to an old location. Re: topic "Two Brief UI Questions:...")
Give the file a name (the container format is applied automatically. This is where the title from the Information dialog comes in handy.)
[SAVE] save dialog closes
[START] ripping processes, pretty fast too.
Note: you cannot queue several of the extractions, just one at the time. When you start working with another title it interferes with the one currently extracting. But it extracts so quickly it's possible you can hardly keep up if the clips are under five minutes.

I generally always have success with this method. The only time it does not work is when I choose a song. It may silently error, but it must be a rights issue.

A caveat about using the "Information..." context choice for a file name: YT titles can contain characters that are not valid for computer file names.

Finally, I thought I might be able to use the information that appears in the "Save..." dialog for command line extraction. I gave up after some near-misses while testing for several hours one Saturday.